ADR? Them’s fightin’ words

The recent controversy over attempts by organized lawyerdom to ban or restrict predispute arbitration contracts led to a Wall Street Journal editorial (“Party at Ralph’s”, Nov. 7) which in turn drew forth the following letter to the editor from David S. Rowley of San Diego (Nov. 14):

Although you got the lawyer-money connection in the Democratic anti-arbitration strategy exactly right, you skipped over the bodacious arrogance inherent in the phrase “alternative dispute resolution.” ADR is lawyer-speak for anything other than a lawsuit, making a lawsuit the “regular” way. ADR gets about the same treatment from the bar as “alternative” medicine gets from doctors.

Every time people sit down and reason together, some lawyer is losing money. Why not ban that? A lawsuit is the most expensive, time-consuming, disruptive and unpredictable of all dispute resolution models. That so many people are so quick to sue suggests that the lawyers have sold the masses on the “regular” way. What a tragic commentary on our times.

Earlier: Oct. 18. More thoughts on arbitration: ADRQueen, Oct. 16.

Filed under: arbitration, San Diego

Defamation-suit roundup

A hearing officer has recommended a reprimand for Boston judge and libel-suit winner Ernest B. Murphy over those “fascinatingly repellent” letters he sent to the publisher of the Boston Herald demanding a settlement of what proved a winning $2 million libel suit (Jessica Van Sack, “Public reprimand urged for Judge Murphy”, Boston Herald, Nov. 21; see Sept. 28, etc.). The operators of the Irish Pub & Inn in Atlantic City, New Jersey are suing the publishers of Philly magazine over their description of the tavern as a “dive bar”, and aren’t buying the magazine’s claim that the description was intended as complimentary. (Michael Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer “Inqlings”, Nov. 18). And a New York lower court judge has declined to order Google/Blogspot to divulge the identity of “Orthomom”, whom a Lawrence, N.Y. school board member had sought to sue on the theory that it was defamatory to have termed her a “bigot”. (Nicole Black, Nov. 18, with links to other blog coverage).

More: And Eugene Volokh (Nov. 27) posts today on a disturbing case from Canada in which a lawyer involved in the shutting down of “hate speech” websites proceeded to sue for defamation — successfully so far in the Ontario courts — over having been called (among other things) an “enemy of free speech”.

Filed under: free speech, free speech in Canada, libel slander and defamation, New Jersey, newspapers, online speech, Philadelphia, restaurant critics

Wildfires and land management suits, cont’d

Controversy continues over the extent to which litigation has tended to obstruct brush and understory removal as well as post-blaze recovery efforts in the fire zones: Damien Schiff (Pacific Legal Foundation), “Misguided litigation magnifies wildfires”, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 5); John Berlau, “The Environmentalist Fires”, American Thinker, Oct. 29; BioStock blog, Oct. 5. The Sierra Club defends environmental litigation in this Oct. 23 statement. Last year the Society of American Foresters last year released a study entitled “Forest Service Land Management Litigation 1989-2002”, which is available at the Society site. Earlier: Oct. 24, etc.

Filed under: ACLU, environment, wildfires

Post office requires releases to participate in Operation Santa

“Under the revised system, the post office will still hand out Santa letters to people who want to donate [gifts to needy local kids]. However, people who want to give must come to the Post Office at Federal Plaza, present a photo ID and sign a contract holding the U.S. Postal Service blameless, ‘…against any and all causes of action, claims, liens, rights or interests of any kind or type whatsoever…'” (Judy Peet, “‘Dear Santa’ letters come with legal catch”, Newark Star-Ledger, Nov. 19; BaristaNet, Nov. 20). More: Nov. 27.

“The Libel Tourist”

Eight-minute documentary short from Moving Picture Institute (“Indoctrinate U.”, etc.) examines a Saudi billionaire’s London defamation suit against American author Rachel Ehrenfeld, whose book Funding Evil (never published in the U.K.) had charged him with funding terrorism. (Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 19). Earlier: Oct. 26, 2003, Jun. 11, 2007. Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz “has won so many defamation claims that he publishes an anthology of apologies on his website. … The sheikh denied being a libel tourist in England where he and his sons had for many years had substantial connections, including residences and a London-based oil company.” (Dominic Kennedy, “US writer fights gagging order on al-Qaeda claims”, Times Online (U.K.), Nov. 1).

Filed under: forum shopping, libel slander and defamation, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom

Lactose intolerance class action

A lawsuit against milk producers over failure to warn buyers about the phenomenon gets poured down the drain by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Howard Bashman, “D.C. Circuit Doesn’t Swallow Lactose-Intolerance Class Action”, Law.com, Nov. 19). Earlier: Sept. 9, 2006, etc.

Filed under: food safety

November 20 roundup

Dickie Scruggs will host Dec. 15 Hillary fundraiser headlined by Bill [Clarion-Ledger via WSJ law blog]

Megabucks campaigns for state judicial office: Symptom? Illness? Both? [Justice O’Connor @ OpinionJournal.com, Adler @ Volokh; Pero]

U.K. kids’ author says publisher’s safety worries vetoed depiction of fire-breathing dragon in book [Daily Mail]

Roger Parloff describes the Judith Regan complaint as bizarre, and angry commenters are soon denouncing him as a Fox’s-paw [Fortune Legal Pad; Althouse; ritual disclaimer]

Wonder why booking a dance venue can get pricey? Here’s one reason [WV Record]

“Why should I take a dollar out of [my neighbor’s] pocket?”: a Virginia Tech family wrestles with the temptation to sue [Mundy, WashPostMag]

Essential silliness of the “media diversity” scare [Welch, LAT]

Boston’s James Sokolove, known for his heavy rotation of personal-injury TV ads, is now chasing for … patent plaintiffs? [WSJ law blog; earlier]

Great big gobs of mutilated monkey meat could bring five years in slammer for NYC immigrant [IHT]

Recounting the tale of Miami’s one-time high-living “King of Torts” Louis Robles, who stole from around 4,500 clients [AJP “CEO Alert” series, PDF]
Campaign regulation laws spell incumbent protection in New Zealand too [Bainbridge]

Influence of newspaper lobby retards natural migration to the web of fine-print legal notices [Liptak, NYT]

Filed under: Dickie Scruggs, New Zealand, roundups, Virginia Tech

NYC council: poor tenants should have eviction lawyers

Note that the proposal here is not to provide free lawyers in cases where careful case-screening establishes a fair argument that the eviction is in some way legally wrongful or unjustified. It’s to use taxpayer money to make sure that tenants who’ve trashed the apartment or stiffed the landlord on months of rent are also assigned a lawyer who will predictably use all the procedural leverage available to stall things out further, extract a payment as a condition for the tenant’s leaving, and so forth. NYU’s Brennan Center is pushing the scheme, which has 22 sponsors on the New York City council. (Manny Fernandez, “Free Legal Aid Sought for Elderly Tenants”, New York Times, Nov. 16). For more about “Civil Gideon” schemes, see this post (scroll) and this one (David Giacalone: “Attorney Employment Assurance Plan”).

P.S.: To clarify matters: for now, the program would apply to elderly tenants (which doesn’t mean all the occupants of the apartment will necessarily be elderly).

Filed under: civil gideon, landlord tenant law, NYC

Squelching the Black Friday bargain-tipsters

“For the last several years, Wal-Mart Stores and other large chains have threatened legal action to intimidate Web sites that get hold of advertising circulars early and publish prices online ahead of company-set release dates.” After one such site received a nastygram from Office Depot, it began reporting forthcoming sale prices at “Office Despot”, whereupon the retailer sued, without ultimate success but presumably at a nontrivial defense cost (Randal Stross, “What to Do When Goliaths Roar?”, New York Times, Nov. 18).

Filed under: advertising, nastygrams, online speech

Federalist Society convention in Washington

At the Federalist Society 25th anniversary convention in Washington this weekend, I’ll be on a panel discussion tomorrow morning (Friday) with lawprofs Ted Eisenberg (Cornell) and David Vladeck (Georgetown) and famed reformer Victor Schwartz (Shook, Hardy & Bacon). Do come up and say hi afterward if you’re in the audience. Look for Ted who’ll also be attending, as well as other names familiar from this site.

Filed under: live in person